Chapter 147: The Motive of the Bandits (2/3)
“Don’t make me laugh.” [Ryouma]
After hearing their excuse, my head started to grow cold.
“It’s scary to kill people? You’re not wrong. That’s a respectable thought. But you people don’t have the right to say that.” [Ryouma]
What do these people think they’re saying?
“It’s scary to kill people, so you didn’t finish him off? But it’s not like you saved him either, did you?” [Ryouma]
“What do you want us to do? Take him to town?” [Bandit 1]
“Did you investigate the reason why he fainted? Even if you don’t know the first thing about medical science, you should still know that getting hit in the head is bad. A person can look alright on the outside, but that doesn’t mean he’s okay. In the worst case scenario, he could never wake up again.” [Ryouma]
That’s not all. Although there’s not a lot of dangerous creatures lurking in this place, it’s still not unusual to happen into a goblin. Even the god-appraised ‘relatively safe’ forest, the Forest of Gana, had them. With his consciousness gone and his limbs bound, if a goblin were to find him, his death would pretty much be guaranteed.
“As I’ve said earlier, I haven’t found him yet, so I still don’t know if he’s safe. You didn’t mean for him to fall off the cliff? You didn’t finish him off, so you didn’t kill him? Don’t make me laugh.” [Ryouma]
There are plenty of people who die from accidents.
It’s not just traffic accidents. Even the innocent but dangerous games played by children have led to deaths.
Countless people die from accidents every year.
And the people that cause these accidents don’t go and say to themselves, “Alright! Let’s do it!” And then go and cause one intentionally.
If there was such a person, that would no longer be an accident but planned murder.
You don’t need to be resolved to kill someone.
You just have to take a step, and regardless if you want it or not, a person will die.
And that’s exactly what they’re doing, though they do it under the pretense of ‘thievery’. It wouldn’t be strange if someone died from their actions.
And yet after doing just that, they left him alone there without even checking if he was alive. After going that far, pulling out the ‘I didn’t kill anyone’ card just doesn’t work.
“…” [Three Bandits]
“Still not talking, huh? What happened to all the energy earlier?” [Ryouma]
“…You trying to give us a sermon? What would a brat like you know?” [Bandit 1]
A sermon? There’s no such thing.
“I haven’t killed anyone… I don’t want to kill anyone… It just didn’t sit right with me hearing those words coming from a group of people who watched someone die without even trying to help. That’s all.” [Ryouma]
…I don’t have time to waste on people like these.
“Wait!?” Please wait! Didn’t you say you would help me!?” [Bandit 3]
“…I don’t like you, but I won’t kill you. In exchange, you’ll have to lead me to the place where the carriage fell.” [Ryouma]
72 hours. When the time elapsed since an accident passes that mark, the odds of survival plummets. And that’s under the condition that the person in question has food, water, and a way to warm himself. If those things are absent and if the person is wounded, the time limit becomes even shorter.
” ‘Dimension Home’ I won’t kill the others. But they’ll have to go in here. The next time you guys come out, it will be in front of the guards.” [Ryouma]
In the end, I had to say that while picking up the bandit that didn’t wake up.
“Is this the right place!?” [Ryouma]
“Yes! There’s no doubt about it, Young Master!” [Bandit 3]
“…Stop calling me ‘young master’. It gives me the creeps.” [Ryouma]
“I’m sorry!!” [Bandit 3]
I had the scared man sit on the impromptu rack with shoulder straps so I could carry him while I climbed up the roadless path.
As I had the man show me the way, the place of the crime turned out to be the side of the road near Kereban just as I’d expected.
But due to them having walked around the mountains these past few days, he couldn’t find the path unless we found the official road first.
With no other choice, I gave up going to the scene of the crime directly and went to the official road first.
The rimel birds were there to guide us, so there was no way for us to get lost.
“…There’s still something bothering me.” [Ryouma]
“Yes! What is it? I’ll answer any question!” [Bandit 3]
“You attacked him two days ago, right? So what were you guys still doing in the forest? Shouldn’t you have run already?” [Ryouma]
“That’s because it’s all plains down the mountain. There’s no place for us to hide ourselves. If other people were to see us looking like this, they will surely be suspicious of us. So we went back up the mountain.” [Bandit 3]
“So what was the plan if you hadn’t been caught?” [Ryouma]
“Nothing in particular…” [Bandit 3]
“…You didn’t have a plan?” [Ryouma]
“We had our hands full just running away from the subjugation squad…” [Bandit 3]
“Just how were you able to survive for so long without a plan?” [Ryouma]
“Before those guys attacked our place, we were carrying food. So we just took those with us when they attacked. Thanks to that we were able to sustain ourselves while running, but even that ran out three days ago and we had no choice but to attack someone.” [Bandit 3]
And that’s how they ended up deciding on Pedro-san who just happened to be passing bby.
“And the luggage you took?” [Ryouma]
“Our late boss hang out with merchants, who provided us with food and weapons in exchange for stolen goods and money, so we figured it would be a good to have some stuff on hand.” [Bandit 3]
“…And do you know where you could sell those stuff to?” [Ryouma]
“…Well, we figured it would be too late to think about it if we only started thinking after the opportunity presented itself, so….” [Bandit 3]
In other words, you people don’t have a single clue!